Llamas everywhere had better watch their step, because Winamp is back from the dead.

It was a sad day in November when the word went out that Winamp, the greatest media player the world has ever known, was disappearing forever. But today the news is good, for today, Winamp rises again, even better than it was before. Better - stronger - faster!

The last-minute stay has come about thanks to a deal between AOL and Radionomy, which has acquired Winamp and Shoutcast for a "cash and share deal" worth between $5 and $10 million. The sale will give AOL a 12 percent stake in Radionomy, an online media platform that currently offers more than 6000 amateur and professional internet radio stations. The addition of Shoutcast to its lineup will push that number to around 60,000, representing roughly half the internet radio stations currently in operation.

Despite being effectively abandoned by AOL, Winamp is still downloaded three million times per month, and Radionomy CEO Alexandre Saboundjian told TechCrunch that the plan is to maintain both Winamp and Shoutcast as going concerns. "We want to rebuild the story for Winamp," he said. "We think the future can be great because the strategy is not just desktop but mobile and cars and so much more."

The Winamp website still carries a message warning of its December demise and the paid version of the software isn't available at the moment, but those are just fading reminders of dark days now passing. The King is dead - Long live the King!

I use vlc for videos and xmplay for music.Can winamp bring anything to the table but slowness?Cause the last thing I remember when using winamp years ago is that it is so laden with features, it takes its sweet time to play stuff.

I've been using Foobar2000 for the past several years, but I used Winamp for years before that, so it'll be interesting to see what Radionomy does with it. If they're good enough, maybe they'll even get me to switch back! I enjoy my Foobar skin, but the classic Winamp 2 theme still carries appeal with me.

cidbahamut:Is it just me or did Winamp hit perfection back in the late 90s and everything else has been so much bloatware?

No it's not just you. Back then it really did whip the llamas ass, but then they tried to slap on too many add ons and plug-ins and it became too cumbersome and a bit of an eyesore.

Here's the thing you can still (or at least in 5.6 you could) strip away all of the extra crap and get the minimalistic media player that you remember from the late 90s. I know because that's what I have right now. Takes up little RAM (~12500 Kb... that's the smallest non-essential process currently running on my machine right now)& little screen real-estate(smaller than the title bar for windows applications/fits in the space over the tab in Chrome when I have the window touching the top of my screen). Simple, speedy, and all that I want out of a music player.

I hope the new acquisition retakes the need to streamline the program. I love Winamp, use it on a daily basis, but darn it has it grown oh so many appendages. Still beats WMP in funtionality and VLC in some features, like you now, a usable media library interface.

I remember I used Winamp 1 and 2 way back in the day. Must've been like 15 years ago or more now. Good times. I've got my Foobar all set up now, so I'm unsure I'll go though the trouble of setting shit up again. Still, this is good news.

I never listened to music on my computer (thats what phones are for) but recently got new pc and my first thought was to try replacements for Windows' default stuff. Naturally, I installed Winamp and I'm pretty pleased with it. I like the look and the functionality and I have no problems running it on my Celeron netbook. I'm looking forward to what they do with it in the future

Here's the thing you can still (or at least in 5.6 you could) strip away all of the extra crap and get the minimalistic media player that you remember from the late 90s. I know because that's what I have right now. Takes up little RAM (~12500 Kb... that's the smallest non-essential process currently running on my machine right now)& little screen real-estate(smaller than the title bar for windows applications/fits in the space over the tab in Chrome when I have the window touching the top of my screen). Simple, speedy, and all that I want out of a music player.

Thanks, I might check it out. I've been using Windows Media Player recently because I've been too lazy to look for a viable alternative.

I think a lot of you have misunderstood Winamps strength. Its a music library manager. If the only thing you are looking for is playing your music, you dont need 90% of Winamps current features. Congratulations on using a bloated beast (which despite its bloat still runs surprisingly well).I like my music tagged, sorted, playlisted and organized, and Winamp is the best tool there ever was for this.

After the shutdown announcement i tried Mediamonkey. It is better, except its more unstable. A bit slower and have a tendency to freeze.

I went from Winamp to foobar2000 when I found out that you can control foobar2000's volume independently of your system volume. So I can listen to music while playing games and adjust the volume of it so it doesn't drown out the game dialogue.

I went from Winamp to foobar2000 when I found out that you can control foobar2000's volume independently of your system volume. So I can listen to music while playing games and adjust the volume of it so it doesn't drown out the game dialogue.

When I heard Winamp was disappearing, I, like so many others, moved on to foobar and have since found it is all that Winamp was not but should have been. I doubt I will go back. I always found library management in Winamp somewhat painful, but foobar handles my library in a much more sensible manner.

If these new owners will make a version of it without all of that useless crap then i might consider using it again. I switched to aimp3 around 4 years ago, when i realised that a media player should't use that many system resources.

...I still use Winamp, I think version 2.6-something. I remember when they decided to put in a liveupdate service, new skin style... and a web browser for some reason... the whole thing went to shit... so I reinstalled the last version I liked and stuck with it. Still works fine.

In other news, I honestly thought AOL was dead and gone. More's the pity.

Greatest media player? You've got to be kidding. The last time I checked, they hadn't updated their MOD player's compatibility in years. XMPlay is far superior in that regard, and I'm sure there are dozens of other MOD players which have better compatibility than Winamp. I started using XMPlay for the sole reason that Winamp's MOD support was so neglected. Of course, it has its own problems (like not being able to play hybrid PCM/FM S3M files correctly), but it's still a lot better than Winamp for what I listen to.

Didn't even know it was "dead". Have been using winamp for as long as I have had a computer with music on it. I agree with what people say about it being better before they added too much. That's why I kept an old version of it that I still use today.I am sure there are better ones out there, but winamp has not failed me yet.

Been using winamp since I first got a PC because my big brothers friend told us about it. It honestly worked just fine since then and it still works just fine.

If your PC is having problem loading up the program then it's your PC that is at fault. Calling it a bloat ware when it takes less than almost anything else on the system. Oh and hey if you care about RAM don't use a internet browser they take about 50 times more.

I just stick to Modern view on the skin for winamp, switching around the color once a year.

So I'm kinda surprised how so many people claim it's complete and utter shit. You just sound like a massive hipster then.

Zefar:Been using winamp since I first got a PC because my big brothers friend told us about it. It honestly worked just fine since then and it still works just fine.

If your PC is having problem loading up the program then it's your PC that is at fault. Calling it a bloat ware when it takes less than almost anything else on the system. Oh and hey if you care about RAM don't use a internet browser they take about 50 times more.

I just stick to Modern view on the skin for winamp, switching around the color once a year.

So I'm kinda surprised how so many people claim it's complete and utter shit. You just sound like a massive hipster then.

I don't gett those bloatware claims either, it only asks 20 mb RAM and <3% of the CPU (unlike Windows Media Player). Total installation size is kept at a minimum aswell.

Zefar:Been using winamp since I first got a PC because my big brothers friend told us about it. It honestly worked just fine since then and it still works just fine.

If your PC is having problem loading up the program then it's your PC that is at fault. Calling it a bloat ware when it takes less than almost anything else on the system. Oh and hey if you care about RAM don't use a internet browser they take about 50 times more.

I just stick to Modern view on the skin for winamp, switching around the color once a year.

So I'm kinda surprised how so many people claim it's complete and utter shit. You just sound like a massive hipster then.

Kinda where I'm at in all this.

I really, really don't get the criticisms popping up in this thread. At all.

Bloatware?Christ, I use one of the newest builds of Winamp and it never uses as many system resources as WMP or VLC[1]. Plus, with either the default or a custom skin it takes up as much, or as little, desktop space as I want.

CompatibilityThis one really baffles me. Very rare is the occasion when I come across an audio file Winamp won't play. Video is another story, but the base range of supported formats is still pretty high. 3rd party plugins solve the rest.

Instability and slownessAnother I don't get. I've been using Winamp for over a decade. In that time I've had it crash maybe five times. And even then each one was the result of another program or Windows causing the problem. And, it's hotkey system is fast and endlessly useful.

Plus, I've yet to find one that has as robust and as useful a library system.

But whatever. Really glad to hear someone's resurrecting the program and the related services. I look forward to Winamps future.

[1] Not even going to get into the MASSIVE memory leak that is Flashplayer.

It's definitely a minimal program, in terms of system resource usage, and is one of the best if that's what you're looking for. However, fair warning: it's a hideous program. The base UI is as amateur-looking as it gets. Honestly looks like something someone whipped up in a weekend.

Winamp can stay dead for all I care, I've had a lot of bad experience with it (instability and such, with each new version being worse than the one preceding it). Granted, it's been ten years since I last used it so it may have gotten better. But ever since I discovered JetAudio I've never had a reason to look back.

Whispering Cynic:Winamp can stay dead for all I care, I've had a lot of bad experience with it (instability and such, with each new version being worse than the one preceding it). Granted, it's been ten years since I last used it so it may have gotten better. But ever since I discovered JetAudio I've never had a reason to look back.

What version was that? Alpha 0.1? Because Winamp has never crashed for me. Even when you where able to run two of them at once.Or rather what type of broken PC did you have when you used it? It just got better with the patches as it added more support for different sound files.